Time to upgrade to an SSD?

Have you not yet upgraded to a SSD in your computer? Does it feel like your computer takes forever and a half to boot? Are you tired of staring at your computer screen waiting for it to load while trying to open a file or application? If so you’re going to want to look at what upgrading your hard drive to a Solid State Drive can do.

SSD:

What is an SSD?

SSD stands for Solid State Drive, which is similar to USB’s or SD cards. There are zero moving parts inside a SSD but instead microchips are used to store data. Typically they use NAND memory which is non-volatile, which just means when the drive loses power the data isn’t erased and forgotten. When SSD first started to be used in consumer computers there were rumors about the stored data being worn off from use. This myth has been debunked with research showing SSDs working for upwards of 200 years and having read/write Pb worth of data.

Advantages

Faster boot time

Read/write speeds up to 3500/2100 MB/s

Low heat production due to zero moving parts and lower power consumption

Disadvantages

Cost per gigabyte is higher

Average capacity is less than 1 terabyte

HDD:

What is an HDD?

Hard Disk Drives (HDD) are mechanical disk drives that rely on multiple moving parts. These parts are the platter which spins at typically 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm using magnets to store the data. A head is used to read/write data to the platter where speed is dependent on how fast it’s spinning at.

Advantages

Low cost per gigabyte

Storage capacity typically found between 1-10 terabytes

Disadvantages

Slow read/write speeds (120MB/s)

Produces heat

Higher failure rate

Magnets can erase/corrupt data on the drive

SSD/HDD Recommendation:

Our recommendation is combining these storage options. Since a SSD cost more we recommend getting a large enough drive to store your operating system and any applications you use regularly. Then add a larger HDD as a secondary drive to store the rest of your data. Doing this will allow you to see the benefit of using an SSD while still having room to store a lot of data.